If you had 10K free and clear what would you do?

reply to post by GeneralChaos


seems like your off topic, this person asks for ideas, of where to set up and what to look for, not to be told we are all going to die. I presume she already knows that. I live rural and it's nothing like you have imagined in your post.
I am not saying I'm off grid but near as damit... and I wouldn't swap it for the doom and gloom that you are portraying.....

Personally, I like the satisfaction of doing things myself, eating things we've grown, etc.

I think like many in this forum, my eventual goal is that even if society went to hell in a handbasket, it'd be nice if daily life wasn't too disrupted. I'd like to still have food, water, running water, some AC, and safety, and I don't think that's impossible. Even taking it a step further, I'd like to be in a position to have a surplus of things, and services, to where I could trade with other survivors, and help us both out, even prosper in such an environment.

reply to post by freedomataprice


What would I do, hmmmm
I would find an older class A motorhome (late 70s- early 80s) that was still in good shape mechanically. I would look for one that the stove, refrigerator etc were still working. Cosmetics less important as I can fix all that myself.
Most of these motorhomes have relatively low mileage and most also have onboard generators and inverters as well as small battery banks.
I bought a motorhome like this 4 yrs ago for $2500.
Then I would buy solor panels with enough wattage to power all onboard systems. Three or four 125 watt panels would likely be plenty. (Make sure the inverter will handle the load and see that the existing battery bank is ample).
Then I would buy some acreage from an owner offering seller financing, there are several sites online that have amazing selections of properties like this for only a few hundred dollars down.
At this point you have your basic setup.
The motorhome will have a black water tank, a grey water tank and a fresh water holding tank. When you need to dump your septic or need fresh water, you can drive into town if necessary. I use the grey water in the garden.
I may buy a large shipping container, dig a hole for it with a backhoe and park my RV over it with an access door to it from inside my RV ( like a trap door) and skirt the RV.
Use the container for cold storage, a bunker, whatever.
These containers cost around $3000 I believe.


Just a few ideas from me. BTW, I am female also.
Best Wishes and Good Luck

Pm me if you want a list of websites that offer owner financed acreages. (I'm not a realtor by the way)

I do have that. And I do nothing but let it make me dividends. More $$$

reply to post by babybunnies


Btw, you can be off the electrical grid and still have electricity...You can also be off the electrical grid and have a satellite internet connection.
Just sayin'

I would buy a yearly subscription to money magazine or smart money and invest with vanguard mutual funds/ bonds. For your old age retirement. If you want to buy land make sure you can rent it out for money to a farmer to make your agricultural loan payments. $10,000 might by ten acres. Make sure you can make money off it renting it out for farming, mobile home renters, or have a rental house on the property to rent. Make your money work for you. I really don't see any apocalypse happening to the whole planet. Hati having their earthquake was their apocalypse for instance. Old age is your likely need.

10k isn't very much aside from a sailboat or a motor home I can't see this going very far but I will watch the thread for some realistic answers from others if they come.

Originally posted by freedomataprice

Originally posted by crankyoldman
reply to post by freedomataprice

 

What exactly do you hope to achieve by this? Seems you are working to alienate your husband which isn't great. Seems you'll be alone, again not so great. Seems you be "sticking it to the man" but the man really doesn't care. It seems a decision born of some misguided notion that isolation, "off the grid" is a reality that is sooooo much better then what you have, yet I seriously doubt this will be the case. In my experience women do not fair too well in isolation, the consciousness process seems to come to halt in many cases.

There is an oddball documentary called "off the grid" you might want to watch it. Notice how being off the grid simply means an altered version of being on the grid. Notice how folks suffer needlessly, and don't seem any the better for it. Notice how off the grid does not really mean self reliant. The later is the key, most folks think they can be self reliant, seems like a dream, but in reality it is a teeny tiny percentage who can.

If you think you'll grow as a person from it, then go for it, but if the origins of this idea are internet doom and gloom, then I'd say look deeper before you leap.

I understand what you are saying, but I am in no way trying to alienate my husband. I love him dearly, but I also love myself. I know what I want out of life and I have lived off the grid before. So your statement that women don't do well sounds strange to me. I never said I wanted to go into hiding. I have no desire to "stick it the man"
While I lived off grid in the past I had many friends as I still do.
The only reason I left and sold my first place was to care for my mother who has since passed away.
Building again and getting my hands in the dirt again is healing.
So if you have no ideas that might be helpful, only critical views as to why I shouldn't follow my dreams,, please feel free to move along.

I'll move along, though next time you might not want to post like this in an open forum, a post lacking in information, as the replies will often be less then, "hey good for you." As for why I replied, there are others who may benefit from what I say, even if you feel the reply in this open forum is a negative to you. Enjoy the woods, I'm sure it will be everything you need to grow.

We do a swap 10K for my personal details, so the real you stays off the grid
only problem is I'm British

i

wouldn't

post it on ATS

reply to post by Gazrok

I like chicks.

During the spring, Tractor Supply sells chicks for a couple bucks each. They grow super fast and are actually fun to watch grow for me. You'll have eggs within just a few months and you know how old your chickens are, as well as having the chickens used to you. They will break out of the pen from time to time and chickens that know you are easy to catch when that happens.

I also recommend Rhode Island Reds. They make good meat chickens and awesome egg chickens. I get double-yolkers regularly, and the smallest eggs make those "extra large" things in the stores look like miniatures. Also, they can fight if a predator gets in, especially the roosters.

All I feed mine are cracked corn, grass seed from the wild grass, bugs, and occasionally a few bugs we find. I have never bought laying mash... that's for chickens being raised like a factory farm.

Also, remember that you'll only have to buy chicks once if you do it right... from there on in, just let a few fertilized eggs hatch from time to time and you're constantly replenishing the flock.

TheRedneck

I have seen enough posts in the last couple of pages to make this comment for those who say invest...

Money isn't the end-all be-all of life. If you believe that, then you have my pity; you are mired in an existence that is carefully controlled, just as much as the lives of those poor animals in the factory farms.

There is one line from Star Wars VI: A New Hope that sums it all up: "If money is all you love, money is all you'll get."

TheRedneck

Originally posted by GeneralChaos
reply to post by freedomataprice

 

I always laugh at these survival/prep threads.

I always wonder why people are so eager to live through such a nightmare scenario and why in the world would anyone want to live life on the other side of an event so terrible that everyone would have to live off the grid?

Who wants to struggle to survive?

# that!!!

Life is not the end all be all.
THere are worse things than physical death.
Struggling to survive and suffering, as well as watching your loved ones suffer needlessly and endlessly, day in and day out with no end in sight is a lot worse than death IMO.

I'll take death any day.
I am not that addicted to life in this miserable rock that I will purposely suffer for the rest of my life just so I can stave off what is inevitable anyway.

You have fun with that.

Pretty selfish thinking there

What would you have done if your ancestors thought like that?

Oh thats right. You wouldnt be here today. Because we all know they had it so easy hundreds of years ago...

I always love these types of replies. We all just want to skate through life without any problems. ". times will be tough for a while? F that".....lol...

Double post

Originally posted by freedomataprice
reply to post by TXTriker

 

Yes I have looked into Arkansas, but never TN. I will look again.
West Texas has cheap land but water would be the problem.
I have done rain catchment before and built a filter, it worked well. And was much cheaper than digging a well.
My issue with AR is the flood map from FEMA. Does not look good for a future but then again every state has some form of disadvantage.

On the map it looks like western AR is OK and that's where the Ozarks are. TN is good too and from another post above from The Redneck the prices are still low.

Take 1k, and put it in the bank. Take 6k, and invest in: Tesla, Apple and Platinum(the metal)... Short Microsoft, Intel and AMD. (1k, each) Then, take the remaining 3k and have yourself a week in the Bahama's or Bermuda. Time the trip around September 1. Who knows, when you come back, you may have more than you started with. If not, you have 1k to help find a new life. Life is a gamble and unless you win the lottery, you get nowhere without taking some risk.

Try northern Maine, Some people will still barter for land. Try the Houlton, Hodgton area. I bought a Bug out house for twenty grand, and my brother bought 35 acres with a spring for 5 grand. So all in all it is possible if you look and research!

I'm not sure. 10K isn't enough for a new electric vehicle. It's not enough for a house. It would depend on if i have a reliable source of income at the time,,, but as it stands right now... I would try to find a highway speed electric scooter... or perhaps a diesel one and if that went bust I'd buy a good regular gas trike, put a down on an EZ finance lot and put in a hand crank well... then try to repair my van. that would leave me a tad leftover and i would need to make sure i had steady income to make the lot payments or the rest would dwindle away which is why a new piece of transportation would come first as i worked on what i have for a second way to go and for hauling things. Then i would explore the world of super adobe or invest in a very small but sturdy bug out shed after making my own small foundation. OR, i would just make sure the lot had no issues with campers and buy a handyman special.

Whatever you do don't go looking in Vegas!!!!

Originally posted by Grimpachi
Whatever you do don't go looking in Vegas!!!!

OMG Do you know me???

I got back from Vegas two weeks ago, and I am so glad we had already planned on a limit.